Cotton futures ended mixed Monday in activity featuring small speculators with most players on the sidelines waiting for the release of a key government crop report later this week, brokers said.
The New York Board of Trade's December cotton contract shed 0.03 cent to close at 49.06 cents per lb, dealing from 49.05 to 49.45 cents. It was an inside day since it was within Friday's 49 to 49.69 cents band.
March rose 0.07 to 52.58 cents. One contract aside, the rest added 0.05 to 0.20 cent.
"It's been very quiet. We're just waiting for that report to go out," said Keith Brown, president of commodity firm Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia.
The US Agriculture Department will release its monthly supply/demand report on Thursday at 8:30 am EDT. The data will outline market trends for cotton in the 2006/07 marketing year (August/July).
Some dealers were hoping that the end of the Golden Week holidays in China, the world's top consumer of cotton, would perk up sales in the weeks ahead. The market will be paying close attention to any adjustments in the figures for world production, demand, ending stocks and projections about China's cotton imports and consumption.
Last month, USDA upped its estimate for China's cotton output in 2006/07 to 28 million (480-lb) bales from the preceding month's 27.5 million, and US cotton exports were pegged unchanged at 16.2 million bales. Otherwise, dealings in the cotton pit got off to a very quiet start as the December contract opened near unchanged, edged up to its session high and then came off very gradually on very light business, traders said.
"You had a 40-point range in December (the December contract). There's not really a whole lot you can hang your hat on when the band is so tight," a broker said. Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp sees resistance in the December contract at 49.30 and 50 cents, with support at 48.75 and 48.25 cents. Floor sources said volume traded hit around 5,000 lots, from the previous count of 11,353 lots. Open interest in the cotton market rose 553 lots to 184,282 lots as of October 6.